Corporates under watch for tax evasion

THE Revenue Department is on the prowl to check tax evasion by service providers. The corporates under watch by the Revenue department include Wipro GE Medical, IBM Global Services, TNT India, Air India, Jet Airways, Indian Airlines, ONGC Videsh and Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation, Mr K.P. Singh, Director General, Service Tax, Central Board for Excise and Customs, said. These entities were being probed for non-payment of service taxes, he said.

The Department has slapped a service tax claim of Rs 3 crore on Wipro GE Medical for the period July 2003 to December 2004 on account of maintenance and repairs of hardware as well as providing services. "Out of this, Wipro GE Medical has paid an interim amount of Rs 59 lakh. The balance amount has to be confirmed by the adjudicating authority," he said.

IBM Global Services has incurred a service tax liability of Rs 1.41 crore on providing ERP services. "The investigation against IBM is over and the order for recovering unpaid service tax from the company will be soon issued by the investigating authority," Mr Singh said.

Service providers such as Airport Authority of India, airlines and banks providing MICR facility and on-line data services and firms providing IPR services are also in the list of entities that have not paid the service tax.

The Department is seeking to collect about Rs 100 crore from Air India and was also holding discussions with other airlines such as Indian Airlines and Jet Airways for recovering unpaid service tax for providing Computer Reservation System services to passengers through third-party service providers abroad, he added.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated December 7, 2005)

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